Texts by Annette W. Balkema, Julian Heynen, Xiang Liping, Zhang Qing, Henk Slager

“Better City, Better Life?” is the motto of the next World Exposition, which will take place in Shanghai in 2010, and it is also central to the 2008 Shanghai Biennial. The Biennial’s theme is China’s increasing urbanization, the rapid growth of ever larger numbers of big cities, and the socio-cultural revolutions that accompany this development. The curators of the Biennial will focus on people and the specific circumstances of their lives in this dynamic, urban environment.

Accompanying the Shanghai Biennial, this volume features texts and materials on urbanization and the problems closely linked to it: migration, identity, and globalization. The book also contains statements from all 612 of the participating artists on this complex of themes and the works they are showing.

Exhibition schedule: Shanghai Biennale, September 9–November 16,2008